The Moment I Knew
Chapter One- Meeting the Dursleys
I woke up that morning feeling incredibly excited and unable to keep any sort of smile off of my face. I could see the sun shining through my curtains and despite the fact that I wanted to curl back up in my duvet and go back to sleep, I knew I would be too excited to do that. So rolling onto my side (and falling off of my bed in the process), I stood up and made my way downstairs.
I quickly buttered two slices of toast before hopping in the shower and getting dressed. Unfortunately for me, I'd put off packing until the very last minute; something I was now bitterly regretting. I was due to arrive at the Burrow at ten in the morning. It was currently quarter past nine and I'd only packed the things that I'd never actually taken out of my trunk in the first place.
So keeping a keen eye on the time, I hastily hunted high and low in every corner of my room for everything I'd misplaced throughout the holidays- robes, books, shoes, clothes. I'd lost virtually everything somehow. I'd ended up stuffing most of it unfolded into my trunk, something I knew would give my mum a heart attack if she knew and I grinned slightly at the fact that she wouldn't know.
My mum and dad were currently visiting my older brother James in Australia, who was studying foreign diseases as his work as a healer. Although I hadn't seen my brother in over a year, I'd had to stay at home while my parents left, opting instead to go to the Quidditch World Cup, an event I knew I could not decline. Especially not when I'd been invited by one of my favourite family's in the world: the Weasley's.
Having to sit on top of my trunk to order to actually close it, I glanced at the clock again to see it was just after ten o'clock, for once I was actually running on time which was a bloody miracle.
Dragging my trunk after me down the stairs (cursing loudly when it dropped on my foot), I struggled into the living room and pulled my trunk into the fireplace. Taking one more look around the room, I grabbed some floo powder, took a deep breath and shouted,
"THE BURROW!"
Floo powder was definitely not my favourite way to travel as I tumbled onto the worn rug in front of the Weasleys fireplace. Dust now covered my clothes and face, and my hair felt incredibly matted. Getting up onto my feet, I looked around expectantly trying to catch sight of someone while trying to rub myself free of dirt and make my hair look relatively reasonable.
Catching sight of the Weasley's clock, I saw that everyone seemed to be home except Mr Weasley, who I assumed was at work. Which added to the mystery of why it seemed so quiet. I decided my best bet would be the kitchen; knowing the Weasleys, it was extremely likely that at least one of them would be in there. Immediately being proved right, I saw Mrs Weasley standing in front of the sink, using her wand to peel a large pile of potatoes. Clearing my throat quietly so as not to alarm her too much, I smiled widely as she turned around and clapped her hands together.
"Maisie, dear! I was wondering when you would get here. I hope you've had a good summer so far." My smile turned into a fully blown grin upon hearing her speak. I'd missed this place far too much.
"It's been great, Mrs Weasley." I replied, happily. "My parents are in Australia visiting James so I've been home alone for the last few days."
"Oh, you should have said, dear! It would have been no trouble having you here a few days earlier. And I've told you multiple times to call me Molly." Laughing at her fake stern expression, I nodded.
"Sorry Molly."
"It's okay, dear. Fred and George are de-gnoming the garden if you're looking for them. Hermione arrived just a couple of hours before you did; her and Ron are up in his room if you'd rather see them."
"Oh no, it's okay. I don't mind helping Fred and George. We don't get gnomes in our garden." The reason why was beyond me considering I couldn't remember the last time anyone in our family had actually done any gardening. It was the perfect place for gnomes, but they didn't seem to think so. "Would you like me to move my trunk?"
"Oh, there's no need for you to do that, dear. I'll get Bill or Charlie to move it up to Ginny's room in a bit."
"Okay, thanks Molly." I smiled, waving slightly as I walked out of the kitchen and into the garden, where, true to Molly's word, I saw Fred and George flinging multiple gnomes over the fence.
"That was pitiful." I heard Fred say to his brother. "You barely got it past the stump."
"You try getting it past that stump when the little git's holding onto your finger by its teeth." Snapped back George.
Trying to be quiet and sneak up on them, I quickly lost the element of surprise as I tripped over a discarded bucket and fell flat on my face. Groaning, I raised my eyes to meet those of one of my best friends, George Weasley.
"Why is it that every time I see you, you're tripping over something?" he laughed, helping me to my feet.
"Because I am incredibly elegant and you just can't handle it." I replied, letting go of his hands to shove off Fred's arm which was now draped over my shoulders.
"Of course, George. How could you not know that?" asked Fred, sending his brother a pointed look.
Rolling his eyes, George grinned as we walked back towards where a line of gnomes were trying to sneak their way back into the garden. "So how long have you been here?" he asked, picking up a gnome and throwing it back over the fence.
"About five minutes." I replied, grabbing my own gnome and twirling it over my head. "I was just talking to your mum." I frowned when I saw them stiffen at the mention of their mother. "What is it?" Fred mumbled something inaudibly. "What?"
"We got into an argument." He said again, louder.
"An argument?" I repeated, frowning.
"Yeah. We'll tell you inside. It looks like mum's going to ask us to do more housework. Honestly, we've been doing it all morning…" Said George, grabbing my hand and pulling me quickly inside and upstairs to their room.
I loved the twins' room. Filled with odd bits and bobs (most of which I had no idea what they even were), it was like an obstacle course to cross the floor without injuring yourself. Especially for me with my accident-prone self. Parts of the walls and floor were also covered with large, black burn marks from various accidents and explosions that had happened in the past, although I saw that a lot of them looked fairly recent.
"So are you going to explain or what?" I asked, sitting myself down on George's bed.
"We got our O.W.L results the other day." Started Fred, glumly.
"And mum wasn't very impressed." Continued George.
"Why?" I asked, half expecting the answer.
"We only got three each." I nodded at his response. In all honesty, I knew the twins would not get a lot of O.W.L's. Not that I thought they that weren't smart- far from it- but they never focused on their school work as much as they did on other things. School work just didn't interest them; inventing their own joke-shop products did and it showed.
"That's not too bad." I said, gently.
"Try telling that to our mum." Muttered Fred, bitterly. "You'd have thought we'd have failed everything by the way she was going on about it."
"She can't understand why we would want to open a joke shop." Explained George. "She wants us to work at the ministry like dad does and can't seem to get it into her head that we find it mind-numbingly boring."
"What O.W.L's did you both get, anyway?" I asked, quite curious about the answer.
"We both got defence and charms." Said George.
"And I got transfiguration and George got herbology of all subjects…" said Fred, giving his twin an odd look. "No guesses to what you got though." He smirked, causing me to raise my eyebrows.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, cocking my head to the side.
"Please." Scoffed George. "There is no doubt that you got all ten of your O.W.L's. At outstanding level."
Trying to refrain from blushing, I smiled slightly while muttering, "I actually got exceeds expectations in history of magic and care of magical creatures…"
"Whatever." Said Fred. "I seriously do not understand how you did that well. You barely did any more work than we did!"
"Yeah, but I did listen in class." I countered. The twins merely glared at me.
The next day, I was informed that Mr Weasley would be going to pick up Harry to bring him back to the Burrow. Upon asking who wanted to join him, me, Ron, Fred and George immediately walked over to where he was standing beside the fireplace because, you guessed it, we were going by floo powder.
"This is going to be the perfect opportunity to try out one of our products." George whispered into my ear. I grinned up at him, highly aware of the faint blush covering my cheeks at his closeness. I'd always been a little closer to George than I had to Fred for reasons that eluded me. For some reason, I got along with George better, and he was always the one that I ended up going to when I needed any comfort of some sort. I confided in Fred too, of course, but I didn't think he understood me as well as George did. But I'd never blushed around him.
"Which product?" I whispered back.
"You'll see."
Unfortunately for all of us, Mr Weasley had not planned our arrival very well. While he'd managed to connect Harry's fireplace to the Floo Network, he'd failed to realise that he didn't have an open fireplace, resulting in all of us piling up behind Harry's fireplace.
Seeing as I was the one to follow Mr Weasley, I ended up squished up against his back as Fred appeared behind me.
"Ouch!" shouted Mr Weasley, who was being pressed up against the fireplace. "Maisie, go back, oh! Fred, no- go back, go back, there's been some kind of mistake- tell George not to- OUCH! George, no, there's no room, go back quickly and tell Ron…"
"Maybe Harry will hear us, dad- maybe he'll be able to let us out!" said Ron, who had flooed in before we could stop him. I was now beginning to feel very uncomfortable and I was pretty sure my foot was going numb.
"Fred, seriously, you're elbowing me in the back!" I complained.
"Are you sure it's my elbow, Maise?" he joked, causing me to try and move away while shouting (very loudly), "Ewww! Ew! Ew! Fred!"
"I was joking! Geez…"
"Harry! Harry! Let us out!" I yelled, with the others. "Get me out of here!"
I let out a sigh of relief when I heard Harry on the other side of the fireplace. "Mr Weasley?" he called. "Can you hear me? Mr Weasley, it's Harry…the fireplace has been blocked up. You wont be able to get through here."
"Damn!" said Mr Weasley, almost head butting me as he moved his head backwards. "What on earth did they want to block up the fireplace for?"
"They've got an electric fire."
"Really?" asked Mr Weasley, excitedly. I smiled at his enthusiasm. Despite being pure-blood myself, my family had grown up in a large muggle inhabited area, so I knew a lot more about muggle technology than a lot of pure-bloods. Not everything, but I knew quite a bit. "Ecklectic, you say?" continued Mr Weasley. "With a plug? Gracious, I must see that…let's think…ouch, Ron!" Ron had managed to maneuver himself to the front, elbowing everyone in the process.
"What are we doing here?" he asked. "Has something gone wrong?"
"Oh, no, Ron." Said Fred sarcastically. "No, this is exactly where we wanted to end up."
"Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here." Continued George, who I now realised was crushed up against a side wall.
"Boys, boys…" scolded Mr Weasley, half-heartedly. "I'm trying to think what to do…"
"We could blow it up." I suggested with a grin, thinking of all the scorch marks in the twins room. I heard a very loud 'NO!' come from the other side of the fire while the twins cheered in agreement behind me.
"Yes…" said Mr Weasley. "Yes…only way…stand back, Harry."
"Wait a moment!" bellowed Harry, a slightly worried tone seeping into his voice. "What exactly are you going to-"
I barely had time to brace myself before Mr Weasley blasted a hole in the fireplace, causing all five of us to go crashing forward in a huge cloud of rubble and loose chippings onto Harry's living room rug. I ended up in a Weasley sandwich, lying between Ron and Fred who had been respectively in front and behind me. I rolled over onto my back (taking Fred with me) before taking George's outstretched hand to stand up (which seemed to be becoming a very frequent habit).
"That's better." Breathed Mr Weasley, dusting off his robes. "Ah- you must be Harry's aunt and uncle!"
Looking to the side, I hadn't even registered the two other people in the room, although I knew who they were immediately. Harry's uncle Vernon, who was incredibly fat and had a very impressive mustache, and his aunt Petunia, who was the exact opposite of her husband being very thin with a strangely long neck. Even by sight, I could tell they weren't very nice people. Or maybe that was just because of everything Harry had told me about them. Whatever it was, I didn't like the way he looked at Mr Weasley like he was the dirt under his shoe.
"Er- yes- sorry about that." said Mr Weasley, casting a guilty look over to the now destroyed fireplace. I would have felt bad for the Dursleys if they weren't such terrible people. "It's all my fault, it just didn't occur to me that we wouldn't be able to get out at the other end. I had your fireplace connected to the Floo Network, you see- just for an afternoon, you know, so we could get Harry. Muggle fireplaces aren't supposed to be connected, strictly speaking- but I've got a useful contact at the Floo Regulation Panel and he fixed it for me. I can put it right in a jiffy, though, don't worry. I'll light a fire to send the boys and Maisie back, and then I can repair your fireplace before I disapparate." I had to restrain a laugh from the completely bewildered and confused look on Harry's aunt and uncle's face. They didn't look like they'd understood a single word that had just come out of Mr Weasley's mouth. Mr Weasley, however, seemed completely oblivious to this as he turned towards Harry.
"Hello, Harry! Got your trunk ready?"
"It's upstairs." Replied Harry, who was grinning at the entire exchange that had just taken place.
"We'll get it." volunteered Fred, making me narrow my eyes at his quick offer. Suspicious much?
"Well…" said Mr Weasley, now highly aware of the awkward silence that everyone seemed to share. "Very- very nice place you've got here." I scoffed as I looked around. Maybe on a regular day it was nice, but we'd completely destroyed the living room. But having said that, it would probably do these people some good to have some mess in their lives. They seemed far too prim and proper to me. "They run off eckeltricity, do they?" asked Mr Weasley, gesturing towards the television and video player in the corner. "Ah yes, I can see the plugs. I collect plugs. And batteries. Got a very large collection of batteries. My wife thinks I'm mad but there you are." I could see that the Dursley's definitely agreed that Mr Weasley was mad, but I refrained from saying anything until I saw someone who was undoubtedly Harry's cousin Dudley enter the room. And then I said something that caused a very unexpected reaction.
"Did you know that the only animal to get sun burnt other than humans is the pig?" I said, trying to break another silence that we'd entered.
Upon my words however, Dudley raced behind his father covering his bum with both hands, Harry's uncle went extremely purple in the face and looked as if he would like nothing more than to strangle me, and his aunt shrieked and stood slightly behind her son as if to surround him from any harm. I could have sworn she'd started crying after my words. And then I remembered what Harry had told us all once; that Hagrid had given Dudley a pig's tail and had been terrified of anything magicical ever since. Merlin…he probably thinks that I'm going to turn them all into full-on pigs now…
Mr Weasley gave me a look of mild concern before turning towards Dudley, his face now full of concern as to why he was looking so worried and clutching his bottom so hard it looked as if he was afraid it was about to disappear.
"Having a good holiday, Dudley?" he asked, kindly. Dudley merely whimpered in response.
It was at this point that Fred and George re-entered the room carrying Harry's trunk, now sporting matching evil grins at the sight of his cousin. I had long since become weary of this look. While it usually resulted in something highly amusing for all of us, the victim (which was usually an unsuspecting Slytherin or first year) ended up incredibly worse-off.
"Ah, right." Said Mr Weasley, not noticing his sons grins. "Better get cracking then. Incendio!" Barely registering the Dursleys flinching against the wall, I watched as Mr Weasley opened up a pouch full of floo powder and threw a pinch into the now roaring, green fire. "Off you go then, Fred."
"Coming." Said Fred. "Oh no- hang on-" A bag of sweets had 'accidently' dropped out of Fred's pocket, causing the contents to scatter all over the floor. There was not a doubt in my mind that this was the 'trying out' of one of their products. Although that did make me wonder why he started to pick all of the sweets up before stepping into the fire, giving the Dursley's a very cheerful wave, and shouting "The Burrow!", disappearing in a roar of flames.
"Right then, George, you and the trunk." George gave me a quick wink once he'd stepped into the fire, causing me to cock my head to the side in amusement. "Ron, you next."
"See you." said Ron, brightly towards the Dursleys. "The Burrow!"
"Harry, if you go next, and then Maisie can follow…"
Harry nodded in response. "Well…bye then." He said to the Dursleys. I watched as Harry moved towards the fireplace only to be held back by Mr Weasley, who was looking at the Dursleys in amazement.
"Harry said goodbye to you. Didn't you hear him?"
"It doesn't matter." Muttered Harry. "Honestly, I don't care."
"You aren't going to see your nephew 'til next summer." Continued Mr Weasley, not moving an inch. "Surely you're going to say goodbye."
I can honestly say that I had never until this point seen someone care so little for family. I was amazed at the looks that flittered over Harry's uncles face- as though it pained him to have to say something to his only nephew. I found myself incredibly thankful I had a family that loved me. "Goodbye, then." Growled his uncle, reluctantly.
"See you." replied Harry in the same tone, now able to step into the fire. But before he could utter a single word, all of our attention was directed onto a horrible gagging noise courtesy of Dudley, who was kneeling beside the coffee table and gagging on a very long, purple thing protruding from his mouth. And then I realised, Fred had left one of his ton-tongue toffee's they'd been working on late last year. I didn't think they'd actually finished developing them, but I could only marvel at the results for one more second before Mr Weasley stepped in front of me with his wand out-stretched.
"Not to worry, I can sort him out!" he shouted over everyone else's yells. I exchanged a grin with Harry, the only other person in the room that seemed to find the situation remotely funny. "No, really!" insisted Mr Weasley, seeing the Dursleys step protectively in front of their son. "It's a simple process- it was the toffee- my son Fred- real practical joker- but it's only an engorgement charm- at least, I think it is- please, I can correct it-" He sent me an exasperated look as if I could fix the situation (to which I merely shrugged) as the Dursleys continued to shriek and shout, and I almost went to step forward when Harry's uncle threw a rather large china figure from a nearby table at Mr Weasley's head. "Now, really! I'm trying to help!" But Harry's uncle responded simply by picking up another ornament. "You two, just go! Go! I'll sort this out!"
I left just as a third ornament flew across the room, narrowly missing my face as I spiraled out of there and back to where Fred and George were grinning in anticipation.